What are your top five prose books about superheroes (fiction or non)?

…I don’t really have any? I mean, I haven’t gotten around to reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and looking over my heavily loaded-down bookshelf there’s a lot of various fiction (some fantasy, some sci-fi, some just plain ol’ fiction), and non-fiction, and nothing that really screams out “superheroes.” I mean, maybe you can make a case for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in a sort of Gaimanesque sense, but…

…oh, wait, the Kingdom Come novelization. Where the hell did I get that and why do I still have it? It kinda sucked, even if it was by Eliot S! Maggin. Still, by default I suppose it is my top prose book about superheroes.

Sage Freehaven:

Squirrel Girl – yea, or nay?

There’s, like, this kind of progression in comics fandom to latch onto relatively obscure and usually weird characters until they get played to death. Squirrel Girl was a while back, MODOK is the current hobbyhorse, Mogo was a bit previous to that, et cetera. I don’t really have a problem with the phenomenon, and Squirrel Girl’s been used well enough in her spurt of ironic popularity to comment on how stupid certain trends in comics are, so I suppose I’ll go with “yea.”

That having been said, I hereby proclaim 2008 to be the Year of Multi-Man. Make it happen, people.

kalyarn:

The Erie Doctrine – the hell?

Oh wait…you’re not from here…

No, but the doctrine, while not technically applicable in Canadian law, is something we’ve studied as we also have a federal system, and it’s one possible solution for determining legal differences between sub-states in a federal system. We don’t use it here, though, because the majority of serious Canadian law is implemented at the federal level (most notably the Criminal Code of Canada) and our Constitution is designed differently from yours. What I get from the Erie Doctrine is that it’s very much the product of a nation where federalism was, at one point, a really big deal to people other than Ron Paul.

supergp:

You’ve posted about American politics from time to time- do you have an endorsement to make? If so, who?

Barack Obama.

I’ve said before that any of the Democratic candidates would be good enough, but there’s good and then there’s best outcome, and that’s Obama. Clinton is simply too moderate and cautious; I think she’ll do a reasonable job, but her first instinct will always be the small move, and right now we need big moves. Furthermore, in the general election Hillary just isn’t going to have coattails – regional Democrats will get no added traction from Hillary the way they potentially can from Obama. More importantly, Obama can be a gamechanger for progressive politics in the same way that Reagan was for conservative politics; he’s really amazing at restating his opponents’ arguments to make them agree with him in much the way that Reagan could do it.

Furthermore, I can’t state enough how transformative simply having Obama as your president would be for your foreign image. A Democrat in general at this point is, I think, a necessity for America to regain credibility – you need to run away from Bush as fast as humanly possible for perception reasons, let alone all the others – but Clinton would just be “good enough,” whereas Obama would be a “holy shit, America did that? I forgot how awesome America can be” moment. I would genuinely love to see you guys have a moment like that again. I’m not even slightly kidding.

(John Edwards is done. I’m not happy about it, but he’s done. It’s time to move on, folks.)

Obviously, you’d really like to write LoSH; what would you write if you could write something at Marvel?

The idea of team books generally appeals to me more than “single” books, so I’m going to say Runaways. There’s a whole lot to do there which interests me.

That having been said, I can also think of a lot I’d like to do with Dr. Strange. And on a DC note, yes, Legion, but also Frankenstein. Because Frankenstein is awesome. He fights evil bug-men and speaks in Gothic prose.

12 users responded in this post

After reading that quote from Obama you linked to, I want to vote for him too. I’m going to have to read up more on his positions on issues; do you have any recommendations for web sites where someone who doesn’t normally give a damn about politics outside of the standard moral outrage at politicians being complete asses can go to get caught up/educated on candidates’ platforms?

Regarding the first question, “Soon I Will Be Invincible,” by Austin Grossman, is worth a read. The novel takes place in a comic book world and plays it fairly straight. Narration is split between the longtime supervillain “Doctor Impossible” and the newbie hero “Fatale.” It’s curious to read a superhero novel that isn’t a parody, a straight transliteration of comics to prose, or a sexed-up “deconstruction” of the genre. Instead, it’s played straight, with a little intelligence behind it. Grossman makes with the Big Booms and world-conquering, but also plays to the strengths of the prose format by telling the story entirely through his characters’ heads. What we see is tailored by their perceptions, and we understand them through their emotions and thoughts far more than we do in traditional comics.

It’s not a deathless masterwork of the age. But it’s a fun book that translates superheroes and villains to prose well. I ripped through it in a day or two, and don’t regret having done so.

At the very least, Grossman appreciates why anyone would want to be a supervillain. Donning the helmet and cape, shaking fists at the sky, screaming “I AM INVINCIBLE!” is pretty damn rad. Especially if you have a robot army behind you. (When I do it, sans army, standing in my driveway, it’s kinda sad.)

After Kavalier and Clay, you might want to consider Tom de Haven’s “It’s Superman!” The book’s not a novel-version of a preexisting comic trade; it’s an original story of Superman Begins, in the 1930s, as Clark Kent travels from Smallville to New York City.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a really fun book, but I’m surprised no one has rec’d the Wildcard novels, edited by George R.R. Martin. There are about a dozen books in the series and more are coming out soon.

I got Soon I Will Be Invincible for Christmas, and I liked it okay, but it didn’t stand out ahead of other superhero stuff I’ve read, like Nobody Gets the Girl (Maxey) or Other People’s Heroes (Petit) or John Ridley’s two books. They’re all okay. (And not quite as good as What They Did To Princess Paragon (Rodi) or Kavalier and Clay.)

I have to disagree about Obama. For some reason, that guy reeks of puppet-ness to me. I keep seeing him as someone conservatives are quietly backing because they know, in the long run, he’ll be easier to control. But that’s just my gut instinct. Emotional feelings aside, it bothers me that he’s contradicted himself in the past, that he changes his personal history according to the audience–granted, a lot of politicians do that, but mainly it bugs me that he broke the promise he made to Illinois that he wouldn’t run for president until he had served two terms as senator.

I don’t see Hillary as pandering to the right, as you implied. I see her as a strong person, with strong opinions, with the ability to fight for what she wants. She also has more political experience than Obama. Obama might have bigger ideas, but he doesn’t have experience in the system. I’m not naive enough to see this as an advantage, since I know one’s more likely to get what they want working with and manipulating the system then fighting against it. Plus, political inexperience means he’s more likely to be manipulated himself.

I also think this country needs someone more moderate, more in line with the middle. We have been too divided as of late. I don’t think the problem will be solved by swinging the pendulum far left.